Another huge change comes to the T1 VALORANT roster, this time in the form of an all-star acquisition of Timothy “autimatic” Ta.
Is this acquisition an autimatic upgrade for T1? (Image courtesy of T1)
Autimatic makes the long-awaited transition to VALORANT. Previously, he played CS:GO for Gen.G, but was moved to the transfer list along with the rest of their lineup to end 2020. He was previously linked to a potential trio with Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and Miikka “suNny” Kempp. However, flusha recently revealed that they failed to find any interest from any established organizations. The switch to VALORANT is not unexpected, as autimatic had been playing during his holiday break.
He leaves behind a Counter-Strike legacy as being one of North America’s brightest stars. He was a mainstay of Cloud9 CS:GO before, during, and after their miraculous championship run at the ELEAGUE Boston major. At the end of 2019, he finally departed Cloud9 after over three years, and became a primary rifler and AWPer for Gen.G. He now brings his championship experience and versatility to VALORANT and T1.
T1 has already been through a myriad of changes since almost a year ago, when they signed Braxton “brax” Pierce in March. After that, they added former CS:GO teammates Keven “AZK” Larivière and Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham. They also started Austin “crashies” Roberts and Victor “food” Wong, but released the two in September. They’ve since found a new home and success with Team Envy.
T1 then brought in another former brax teammate in Sam “DaZed” Marine. They followed this up with a curveball in former Overwatch pro Ha “Sayaplayer” Jung-woo, who now plays under the name “Spyder.” This roster successfully qualified for First Strike, but were bounced by eventual champions 100 Thieves in the quarterfinals.
While not officially announced by T1 yet, autimatic will allegedly be replacing AZK on the starting roster. Additionally, brax’s future with T1 is currently in question, per esports journalist George Geddes. T1 will be expected to compete with autimatic in the open qualifiers for the second Challengers event. In their announcement, the team said they are hoping to win the VALORANT Champions Tour.
